It is well known to apply a desired texture material to an exposed surface, such as gypsum wallboard, commonly referred to as sheetrock or drywall, or a plastered wall. The textured material, known as knockdown drywall, typically comprises a slurry of gypsum, suitable sands, and water that are sprayed onto the wall surface and then “knocked down,” i.e. the tops of the globs flattened out using a trowel. The amount of sand and water may be altered for changing the consistency of the slurry. A thicker slurry results in rough texture on the drywall, while a thin slurry results in a somewhat smooth texture on the drywall. After the slurry is sprayed onto the drywall and knocked down or flattened using a trowel, the slurry dries to achieve the desired texture. The texture material is applied to the drywall to enhance the appearance of the wall or to hide surface imperfections.
It is a known difficulty of applying the material to drywall when there is existing texture adjacent to an area to be textured. If there is existing texture adjacent to the area to be textured, such as a repaired portion of drywall for example, it is extremely difficult to match the newly textured area to the existing texture, due the difficulty of achieving the desired viscosity of the material. It is known that it is difficult to repair a small area of a knockdown drywall wall in a fashion that matches the surrounding knockdown drywall texture unless a trained professional uses a hopper sprayer to spray material in the area that has to be repaired and knocks down the sprayed material with a trowel in a fashion that matches the surrounding texture. A process that usually requires masking off surfaces near the repair.
A prior art automated mechanism for applying a texture material, such as a texture slurry to a substrate such as drywall is disclosed in Matthews U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,507. The disclosed mechanism comprises an air powered sprayer that includes a canister assembly. A piston assembly is disposed in the canister and reciprocates along the length of the canister. An air inlet is disposed at one end of the piston canister assembly. At an opposite end, a slurry inlet and outlet device is provided. A nozzle assembly is coupled to the slurry outlet for passing of the slurry material for subsequent combination with air at the nozzle assembly. The combination of slurry material and air are then disposed on the surface to be treated. A disadvantage of the disclosed mechanism is that the process requires a relatively expensive hopper sprayer, a skilled experience person, and the masking off of adjacent surfaces.
Melby et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,196,263 discloses a rubber article having a textured surface and a method for preparing the rubber article. The disclosed texture coating mixture is formed from a mixture of a rubber composition having a rubber component and rubber particles, substantially the same as the rubber composition employed to form the rubber article. A method of forming the rubber article is also provided which includes coating the rubber article with such a rubber texture coating mixture.
Additionally, Silva U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,999, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, discloses a tool and method for applying a texture material to a surface that comprises a flat, rectangular paperboard body for mating to a smooth surface, such as a repaired portion of drywall. The body has a multiplicity of spatially positioned openings disposed therethrough. Each of the openings has a predetermined configuration and position on the tool, for providing a pattern substantially matching the appearance of existing textured surface adjacent to the smooth surface. The invented method includes first affixing the tool to the smooth area of the surface, then applying a texture material to the tool. The spatially positioned openings receive the material to apply the material to the smooth surface for forming a newly textured area. The spatially positioned openings in the tool enable a user to substantially match the appearance of the newly textured area, with the appearance of the existing adjacent textured surface. After the material is applied to the tool, the tool is removed and a trowel is lightly drawn across the newly textured area, until the appearance of the newly textured area closely matches the appearance of the textured surface.
Although the devices disclosed in the above prior art references have improved features, they fall to disclose all of the advantageous features achieved by the present invention.
There, therefore exists a need for an improved tool and method for applying a texture material to a surface that is easy to use, reusable and enables a user to substantially match the appearance of the newly applied texture with the appearance of an existing adjacent textured surface.